Bicycling Newsletters

Bike racing in New York City is usually limited to roads within the city's public parks, where races are held just after dawn when the parks are virtually empty and spectators nonexistent. But here the mood was raucous. Still, everyone understood the sheer leg- and lung-searing pain the racers were about to go through, and people consistently expressed admiration for those gutsy enough to pin on a number and join the field.

Finally, the gun went off, and 80 or so men and one woman—inaugural Red Hook champ Kacey Manderfield—screamed toward the first turn. With a $100 prize on offer to the person who crossed the start-finish line first after one lap, local bike messenger Austin Horse galloped ahead of the field to take the first prize of the night.

Unlike in a long road race, or on a Tour de France stage, there really is no peloton at Red Hook. From the gun the riders were stretched into a long, thin snaking line, like a chain that fairly quickly broke apart into several unattached clumps of links. By lap three, a group of 20 or so had already distanced themselves from the rest. A lap later, that 20 had been whittled down to a dozen. Even though it was early going, the winner was certain to come from this handful of riders.

A few attacks and some cat-and-mouse antics ensued for the next couple of laps, with riders darting off the front of the lead pack only to be swallowed up moments later. The night's decisive move was made on lap seven, when a group of four riders blasted out of the lead group. The quartet contained two previous winners of the race, 2009 champ Neil Bezdek and 2010 winner Daniel Chabanov. Along with them were last year's third-place rider, Al Barouh, and another rider who not a lot of the local fans recognized, Nathan Trimble, the race organizer's younger brother.

A bike messenger beats the pros, defends title

At the halfway mark, the four leaders had a 10-second gap on eight chasers. By two to go, their lead was up to 30 seconds. At this point speculation turned to who of the four was most likely to take the win.

Bezdek, a former bike messenger who's now a pro racer for criterium specialists team Mountain Khakis, was known to pack a powerful sprint. The others were obviously beasts with tremendous power but not known for their finishing kick.

At the finale, it was a four-up sprint for the line with Chabanov taking it, Bezdek second, and Barouh third. Chabanov had gotten the edge by being first around the course's last hairpin turn before the dive for the line. He was able to hold that tiny bit of lead to win by inches, so repeating his victory from 2010 and becoming the Red Hook Crit's first multi-time champ.

For his pains, Chabanov took home $500 in $1 bills, a custom-painted Cinelli track bike, a giant cobblestone trophy, and other goodies. But later it was clear that his accomplishment and the accolades he'd earned had not entirely gone to his head. Standing on the sidewalk at 1:30 a.m. outside the race's after-party at a neighborhood pub, Chabanov asked a buddy, "Hey, you want to go riding tomorrow?"